goldsmith



2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(N0 Model J. S. GOLDSMITH. APPARATUS FORBEGEIVING TIME CHECKS. No. 326,494.

Patented Sept. 15, 1885.

INVENTOR JOH/Y S. GOLDSMITH,

WITNESSES C1 wlw/y N. PETERS. Pnoin-Lllhugrwnm Washmglon. uvc

2 Sheets-Sheet 2,

(No Model.)

J. S. GOLDSMITH. APPARATUS FOR REGEIVING TIME CHECKS. No. 326,494.

Patented Sept. 15, 1885.

By his .lttorney WITNESSES INVENTOR L/OH/Y 6. 001. DS/W/TH,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN S. GOLDSMITH, OF NEXV YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR RECEiVlNG Tllv E-CHECKS SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 325,494, dated Eteptenzber 15, 1885.

Application filed December 1884.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J ornv S. GoLDsnrrrr, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Receiving Time-Checks, of which the fol lowing is a specification.

In common with an improvement in checktickets for messenger-service, and an improvement in apparatus for controlling the issue of time checks, described and claimed in two other specifications of even date herewith, this invention relates, primarily, to means for insuring promptness and correct charges in messenger-service, and for preventing the concealment of pilt'ering and other fraudulent practices on the part of those em ployed to collect and account for all that class of monetary charges which are determined as to amount, wholly or in part, by the duration of the service or privilege charged for. The apparatus may also be used as a substitute for watchmen s and workmens time-recorders.

The present invention consists in an automatic apparatus adapted to receive checktickets, check-disks, or the likc,andto keepin separate compartments all those received during given successive periods of time; also, in means giving access to the compartments individually for emptying them and making test-inspections ofthe contents; also, in a special construction of the apparatus whereby it may be given any required capacity without increasing the load of theclock-work by which its controlling-mask is operated, and, .tiually, in a particular mechanism for transmitting motion to the latter from the main arbor of a central clock and for locking it after each actuation thereof, so as to preclude fraudulent hand movements of the mask.

Three sheets of drawings accompany this specification as part thereof. Figure l ot'these drawings is a face view of my said apparatus for receiving time-checks, and Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof. Fig. 3 represents a vertical radial section of the same; Fig. 4, a half-horizontal section on the line l 4, Fig. 3, and Fig. 5 a perspective view ofpart of the clock-work.

Like letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

The present apparatus, like my said appa' ratus for controlling the issue of chcck-tickets,

(X0 model.)

is designed for use upon a table, counter, or shell, with its clocki'ace, Fig. 1, at top, as represented in the drawings. Its upper part comprises a central clock, A, surounded by an annular series of vertical check-chutes, 1), Figs. 1 and 3, corresponding in number and distribution with the quarter-hour divisions of the clockdial. These check-chutes are embraced within a continuous circumferential wall, 13, and are guarded at top by an annular horizontal mask, 0, having a narrow radial slot, at, through which checktickets,foldedin customary manner, or check-disks or the like may be conveniently dropped.

The lower part of the apparatus, made of any required diameter and depth for a given maximum capacity, has a circular bottom plate, an annular top plate, embracing said wall 13, and interposed vertical partitions coinciding with those between said chutes Z), forming checkcompartments c, which communicate at top with said chutes and have open outer ends. The latter are guarded by a. circumt'cremial ring-slide, I), having a hand hole, 0, closed by a door, (I, which is provided with a lock or seal fastening, f, to prevent access to the check-compartmcnts by any other than the proprietor or authorized persons. The door (Z, when opened, as shown in dotted lines in l, ail'ords convenient means by which to shift the slide D, and the hand-ho1e 0 corresponds in area with the outer end of each. check-compartineut 0, so as to provide for emptying the compartments individually, and keeping the checks from each or any compartment separate from the others for examination; and, owing to said construction of the apparatus of two diameters, as aforesaid, each check'compartmcnt may have a large capacity, while the rotary mask 0, which guards the inlet-chutes I), may be of relatively small diameter, so as to keep at a minimum the work of the clock A, (or its equivalent) by which said mask is automatically rotated step by step.

The particular mechanism represented as means for taking said motion of the mask C from the clock A is shown in Figs. 3 and 5, and consists of a wheel, 10, of sixty teeth, fast on the main arbor or minute-arbor of the clock, a pinion, at, of fifteen teeth, in mesh with said wheel Ir, a sleeve spindle, 1 on the lower end of which said pinion is fast, a onetoothed pinion, z, fast on the upper end of said spindle,

and a wheel, was, of forty-eight teeth, having a sleevehub or sleeve-arbor, which looselyem- J braces that of the hour-wheel, so that the two wheels rotate freely independently, both being twelve-hour wheels, however. Said wheel to revolves once every hour. Said pinion a, spindle 7 and one-toothed pinion z rotate once every quarter of an hour, and the latter turns said wheel are one-forty-eiglith of a revolution every quarter of an hour. Alocking-lever, Z, connected by a spring-shank to the clock-work frame and having a detcnt-lug which interlocks with the teeth of said wheel we, is retracted to unlock the latter by the contact of the tooth of said pinion z with a rigid arm, 1', projecting from said locking-lever, as shown in Fig. 5, immediately before said tooth engages another tooth of said wheel 10.2., and rclocks the latter after each movement thereof, so as to preclude fraudulent hand movements of the mask 0, the lockinglever resuming its effective action as soon as said tooth of the pinion .2 passes out of contact with said arm r. A collar, 12, Figs. 1 and 3, tightly embracing said sleeve arbor of said wheel in? is provided with three or more radial arms, to, the outer ends of which are attached (by solder or otherwise) to the outer hinge-frame. t, of the hinged face-cover of the clock A. The clock-hands are secured in place above said collar 0, and the face-cover is then closed and fastened by a lock or seal, 35 s. The mask is thus connected with said wheel we, and secured against being removed to afford access to the deposited checks for tampering therewith.

Apart from the clock A and its immediate appurtenances and the fasteningsf, s, the apparatus above described is represented as made of sheet metal and wire in a preferred style. Other materials may be employed in its construction, and its mechanical details may be correspondingly varied without departing from the spirit of the invention.

The clock A, apart from the attachments thereto shown in Fig. 5, may be, as represented, an ordinary spring-driven timepiece with a mainspring of sufficient power; or it may be driven, instead, by electricity or otherwise; or the wheel we may receive its stepby-step motion through the medium of electrical or pneumatic connectionsfor example, from a time-piece at a distance therefrom governing, it may be, similar apparatus situated at several different points so that they shall be absolutely isochronous.

Mechanics skilled in the art of operating time-controlled apparatus will readily understand the foregoing so as to carry the same into effect without further suggestions.

7 I also propose to use in connection with a central clock the supplemental mask-shifting movement described and claimed in the specification of my said improvement in apparatus for controlling the issue of time-checks, with the locking and unlocking device there to belonging, as substitutes for those hereinbefore described, and the latter may likewise be used for actuating and locking and unlock ing the masks of my said issue-controlling apparatus.

Supposing my said receiving apparatus to be usedin connection with check-tickets adapted for the messengerserviee of a district telegraph company, a patron having an account with the company calls a messenger at fifty minutes past one o clock, for example, and one is ready to go. Appropriate entries are made under messenger and called on the ticket, and the messenger starts. He is dismissed so that he should re turn to the district-office at three o clock, and is thus occupied one hour and ten minutes, having been authorized to spend twenty cents for car-fare. The caller is consequently charged fifty-five cents, being thirty cents per hour for the time occupied plus expenses, as noted on the ticket. The ticket-is now deposited in the receiving apparatus. (See Figs. 1 and 3.) Its mask 0 has just come to rest, and the ticket, dropped through the slot (1, passes through the chute Z) and into the checkcompartmentc corresponding with the period 3 to 3.15, followed by all other checks received during this period, after which the mask is shifted for the period 3.15 to 3.30, and so on.

Now, by collusion between the messenger and the clerk in the example above stated, fraud could be accomplished in a way which has heretofore been successfully practiced by dishonest messengers and clerks-that is to say, the messenger dismissed by the caller walks back instead of riding, and returns, consequently, at four oclock, instead of at three. The twenty cents which he should have spent for car'fare, or the corresponding car-tickets, are divided between the messenger and clerk, and the company loses the same plus an hour of the messengers time. As the ticket could not be deposited in the receiving apparatus with those of a period one minute earlier than the period during which the messenger act-ually returns, any such pilfering or the late return of a messenger would be detected.

In some uses of the apparatus ordinary check-disks of metal, card-board, or other ma terials, numbered or otherwise marked, could be used, and when the apparatus is employed as a substitute for watchmens or workmens time-recorders each user may simply deposit a card or slip bearing his name or number in the receiving apparatus.

Test inspections of the contents of the receiving apparatus are readily made by turning its ring-slide D so that its hand-hole a shall correspond with the check-compartment c of a given time-period, and removing the contents of this compartment for examination and comparison with the record of the office.

Having thus described my said improvement in apparatus for receiving time-checks, I claim as my invention and desire to patent under this specifi cation- 1. An apparatus for receiving time-checks, having a series of check-compartments corresponding with successive uniform time-periods, an annular series of chutes communicating therewith, and a rotary mask which guards the upper ends of said chutes, having a radial slot to admit time-checks into one of said chutes at a time, and automatically shifted to give access to the next of the series at the beginning of said time-periods successively, substantially as herein specified.

2. In an apparatus for receiving time-cheeks, the combination of a horizontal mask revolving step by step and having a radial inletslot therein, a radial series of check-compartments with which said slots communicate at top successively, and a ring-slide forming the outer walls of said compartments, and having a hand-hole, which is adapted to be aligned with the open outer end of either of said compartments at will, and is fitted with a door having a lock or seal fastening, substantially as herein specified.

3. In an apparatus for receiving time-checks, the combination of a central clock surrounded by any annular series of check-chutes, and a rotary mask guarding the upper ends of the latter and actuated periodically by the movement of said clock at the top of the apparatus, with a relatively large base occupied by radial check-compartments communicating at top with said chutes, substantially as herein specified.

4. In combination with a rotary mask having an aperture for the passage of time-checks, a clock-movement having a supplemental spurwheel carried by its main arbor, a pinion in mesh therewith carrying a spindle, a onetoothed pinion carried by said spindle, and a spur-wheel having a sleeve-arbor loosely embracing that of the hourwlieel, substantially as herein specified, for revolving said mask step by step in the manner herein set forth.

5. In combination with a rotary mask having an aperture for the passage of time-cheeks, a clock-movement having a supplemental spurwheel carried by its main arbor, a pinion in mesh therewith carrying a spindle, a onetoothed pinion carried by said spindle, a spurwheel having a sleeve-arbor loosely embracing that of the hour-wheel, and a locking-1e ver having a lug to lock the wheel last named after each actuation thereof, and provided with a rigid arm engaged bysaid one-toothed pinion to unlock this wheel at the beginning of each actuation thereof, substantially as herein specified.

Dated at Brooklyn this 3d day of October, 1884:.

JOHN S. GOLDSMITH.

Vitnesses:

JAcoB G. CARPENTER, NEVILLE W. McEvoY. 

